I like humor. Those who know me in real life know that. I see humor just about anywhere. Some suggest I'm rarely serious about anything. (Silly, I know, but some have said it.)
What is humor? What is it that makes us laugh? Humor is basically incongruity. Humor occurs when our minds take us down Path A and suddenly find ourselves ending up at B. The Three Stooges acted outside of the norms and that made them funny. A joke makes us laugh because it turns the expected into the unexpected. We might laugh when someone makes an unexpected mistake or when a tense moment in a movie suddenly takes a relieving turn. Still, it's the "sudden turn", the quick shift that makes it humorous, the "didn't see that coming" sensation.
We can see this when a joke is repeated multiple times. The first time you may be doubled over laughing. The second time it's funny. The third time it's amusing. The fourth time you've heard it enough, thank you very much. You see, the first time you get the benefit of the unexpected turn, but after that you see it coming, so it's not so funny anymore. You may still enjoy the joke, but mostly because it has either left your consciousness or perhaps you enjoy passing it on and seeing the reaction of others. (Laughter is, after all, somewhat contagious.)
This whole concept has brought about a change in comedy over the past decades. In earlier times, the jokes kept coming because no one had heard them before. As the masses learned them, they had to change, adapt, expand. The chicken who crossed the road to get to the other side (not the answer you were expecting) was funny once, but is passé now. We've been ... inoculated against that joke. So modern comedians have found the need to spice up their humor. Coarse language wasn't expected before, so sprinkle that in there and you get laughter. Throw in a joke about sex or body functions and it's a sure giggle because that's not supposed to be there. And so it goes. After awhile we become inoculated to those kinds of humor -- "Been there, heard that." So it has to get more outlandish.
Like our problem in comedy, we've managed to inoculate ourselves against surprise in life. It has been a slow process, but we've managed it. We know "who dunnit" pretty early on. Genuine "surprise endings" are really fairly rare and notable when they do arrive. The fact that "these two jumped into the sack together" might have been shocking at one point but no longer. "Doesn't everyone?" Foul language, rude images, gratuitous sex and violence, and so on. Our whole society is getting inoculated to surprise, requiring more outrageous inputs and making is far less observant of the bad things around us. No, not too funny, I guess. My bad.
5 comments:
I often find that "clean" comedians make me laugh more than the coarse comedians. Maybe that plays into the idea of not being expected. Everytime a comedian has to drop the F-bomb every other word, it gets old quick, yet the masses seem to keep laughing. Le sigh.
This is a great post. I have given humor a lot of thought, but I had never thought of it being about the unexpected. I always approached it from having to contain some element of perceived truth.
I would disagree with one point however; that is if I understand your points correctly; which it is quite possible I don't.
Base humor, I am of the opinion, has always been amongst us; but it was reserved for the base elements of society. As our society, as a whole, has become more base in its thinking, so has its humor and its no-talent-required approach to it. with the faltering of the foundational elements that make up healthy living: matrimony, family, honor, etc., our entertainment has followed suit. If today's humor were presented wide scale to a not so long ago version of our society, that society would have as a whole, I believe, been incensed.
Hence I don't think the increase in base humor is due to necessity as much as lack; lack of talent, boundaries, honor, human respect and common decency. This lack, I would add, does not necessarily concern the comedian/writer either, but rather the other way around. In a base society the base elements that have always been a part of society are the ones that naturally rise to the top to give a sort of representation of it. This is noticeable not only in humor, but can be seen in everything, from CEO's, to religion, to politicians. (Not meaning to get off topic)
I'm convinced that the base element of humor so prevalent today is not necessary for something to be funny. It is on the other hand easy. And that's what's important in a base society.
Actually, if I understand your argument, I think we're in agreement. The problem is that we've lowered our standards (become more base).
I do wonder, however, about the "base" concept. I know, for instance, that my granddaughter (just 2) finds bodily noises immensely funny. Is it "base", or is it a lack of maturity? Or is that the same thing? Is our current society so immature that it prefers base humor?
It is on the other hand easy. And that's what's important in a base society.
I believe I've read and expect that we would find that "base humor" - scatological jokes and the like - have always been with us. I expect we could find some instances of crude humor even in the Bible ("He who pisseth against the wall..."?)
I'm less concerned with crude humor than I am uncaring humor - too much humor at the expense of someone done with the intent of mocking a person (as opposed to a position, which is more reasonable, seems to me), for instance.
“man is like divine s***, he fell out of God's anus."
~Martin Luther
"I'm less concerned with crude humor than I am uncaring humor - too much humor at the expense of someone done with the intent of mocking a person..."
Stop setting yourself up.
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